As protests sweep his North African nation, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has defiantly said he'll do whatever it takes to prolong his 41-year reign. Getty

February 23, 2011

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Anti-government rebels have taken control of most of eastern Libya, but Moammar Gadhafi vowed Tuesday to fight until the "last drop" of his blood is gone to keep his 41-year grip on power. (Watch clips from the speech here.) He called his opponents "rats" and said his loyalists would "cleanse Libya house by house," insisting he would "die as a martyr" rather than leave the North African nation. Is there any hope that Gadhafi will surrender power before the bloodshed gets worse? (Watch an AP report about Libya's unrest)

Gadhafi will stop at nothing: When Gadhafi announced in 2003 that he had "given up on terrorism" and abandoned his pursuit of nuclear weapons, says The New York Times in an editorial, the world cheered. But his "brutal suppression of anti-government demonstrations has left no doubt that he is still an international criminal." He will "butcher and martyr his own people" if that's what it takes to remain in power."Libya's butcher"

Gadhafi has nowhere to go: After spending decades supporting terrorists and killing his own people, says David Pryce-Jones in National Review, Gadhafi has no place to run to. And he has nothing to lose by sinking deeper into "further crime" to save his himself. He won't "slip out of the country like other Arab dictators" — for him, the choice is "kill or be killed." "Gadhafi has two choices"